This application generally relates to field of communications. More particularly, this invention relates to a system and method for called party identification of a communications address that answers an incoming communication to a simultaneous ring service.
Telecommunications has experienced explosive growth, and more growth is planned as telecommunication access and numerous communications devices improve. This explosive growth is revolutionizing special services offered to subscribing customers. Of the special service offerings, the simultaneous ring service is relevant to this discussion. Today, more and more individuals (also referred to herein as “subscribers,” “users,” and “customers”) have different telephone numbers, such as, for example, different telephone numbers for his/her home, his/her office, his/her cellular phone, and his/her pager. A calling party is often required to dial or otherwise initiate multiple communications in order to reach the individual—that is, the calling party calls a first telephone number and waits to see if the individual answers the call. If the call is not answered, then the calling party calls a second telephone number and again waits to see if the individual answers the call. This continues with a third telephone number, a fourth telephone number, and so on until the call attempt is answered or until the calling party gives up trying to contact the called party. Consequently, this process is often frustrating for the calling party because the calling party must initiate a series of different calls to different telephone numbers before reaching the calling party. And, called parties may also be frustrated because despite the efforts of the calling party to contact the individual, the end result may still be a missed call.
Conventional simultaneous ring services provides a ringing tone on a dialed telephone number of the incoming call and on selected secondary telephone numbers. Such a service connects the calling party to a telephone that is answered first. As known by those of ordinary skill in the art, these simultaneous ring services may be extended to ring many different telephone numbers at the same time or alternatively, to ring a series of telephone numbers in rapid succession. Although such simultaneous ring services have provided some convenience in reaching the called party, there are problems with implementation, with integration with other service offerings, and with communications to evolving communications systems.